Valve Quietly Implements Steam Feature to Allow Users to Self-Refund Their Pre-orders

We’re not entirely sure when Valve rolled-out this feature, but as of at least last week, users have gained the ability to refund their own pre-order without having to go to customer service. This move offers customers the obvious benefit of being able to backtrack on a purchase after more is learned about the game that helps them realize it’s not their cup of tea.

If a refund is desired, the user can go to their store transactions page and use the “Refund an item” link to the right of that particular title. What’s not clear at this point is how the money gets refunded, but personal experience with Steam leads me to believe that the value will be credited to your Steam Wallet.

I am sure that many will agree that this is a move in the right direction, although I do believe there are additional things that could be done to increase this sort of functionality. If a user purchases a game and has under an hour (or half-an-hour) of gametime accrued, I think the game should be self-refundable within one week of the purchase. This would allow those who buy a game only to discover it won’t work on their PC to avoid a trip to the customer service section.

Or, what if a game is purchased but includes some DRM that’s not listed on the game page? I’d think that’d be a great reason to be able to opt for a self-refund. Given this move though, it seems likely that Valve could fine-tune the system as time passes, and as strange as it may seem, we probably have SteamOS to thank.

Thanks to Squilty for the heads-up on this.